Letters to the Editor
New Deal Democrat
Published Letters: 180 Editor's Choice: 43
-
The panopticon is for everyone
[Read the article: Jean Schmidt: From calling out "cowards" to eating crow]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The previous poster makes a valid point - that people often won't speak frankly when their remarks are being recorded or otherwise monitored.
However, in this particular case, that argument doesn't wash. First of all, I gather that the idiotic rantings of Rep. Schmidt were broadcast live on C-Span. Not exactly private there. To the contrary, she was all too eager to grandstand in her American flag blouse (what a patriot!) and do her pathetic best to smear a seasoned war veteran when it suited her interests.
Secondly, why should the deliberative proceedings of our politicians (if that's what you want to politely call the hog-wallow of Washington) be exempt from the panopticon? The powerful feel utterly entitled to constantly spy on the rabble, which is consonant with Congress's habit of exempting itself from laws it passes for everyone else. (This happened under Democrats as well as Republicans.) This is the rare case when society's omnipresent surveillance can be used against our lame-brained taskmasters. Enjoy the rush.
Defeat is too good for Rep. Schmidt. She should be sent to Iraq immediately following the elections with the inadequate body armor and other provisions that her fellow Republicans have seen fit to bestow - or not - on our soldiers. She is an utter disgrace to the country, or what's left of it. It boggles the mind that there many - SO many - just like her.
-
drugs vs. sex
[Read the article: Ted Haggard resigns]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love it. So buying meth - a plainly illegal act - was apparently only grounds for the pastor's suspension from his church, but having sex with another man, which is not even technically illegal anymore after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision, results in dismissal.
This tells us a lot about the religious right. There's nothing - absolutely nothing - worse than homosex. As Gore Vidal wrote a long time ago, "Morality in America is sex, sex, SEX."
I've gotten to the point that I simply cannot stomach these people anymore. I'm a native Southerner, so I got used to these people at an early age. But I also used to believe, rather naively I guess, that in the fullness of time they would GROW UP and join the adult world. We're all one country and all want what's best, blah, blah, blah.
But with their continued defense of an clearly criminal regime and their clear abandonment of any humane values in favor of the quest for more and more power, I'm now practically ready for another civil war. Anything to be rid of these dangerous idiots.
I wish the Christofascists would all volunteer for duty in Iraq (not that these chickenhawks would ever devote themselves to anything but their own self interest) so that they and their like-minded cousins, Islamic fundamentalists, could kill each other and leave the rest of us alone.
-
Brava to Cleo's return!
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mr. O'Hehir is absolutely correct in his assessment that Varda's "Cleo from 5 to 7" may be the best film of the French New Wave. Personally, I'd rate it a tie with Truffaut's seminal "400 Blows," but that's nitpicking.
Varda's rollicking, zestful film is a paean to the joys of cinema itself. It's absolutely one of the more original films you'll ever see, with inspired use of formal elements (color and b/w, jump cuts, moving camera, sound) creating a fascinating portrait of its subject.
I've never understood why Godard's ponderous and pretentious "Breathless" enjoyed more fame than "Cleo". But given the relentless sexism that is often found in French films of this period, I wonder if the simple fact that Varda is a woman resulted in some sort of dismissal of her work at the time.
In any case, I hope the new print makes it to other parts of the country. If not, you can still see a great print on DVD, courtesy of the Criterion company.
-
Good Grief - FDR had no prior experience?
[Read the article: Draft Obama or silence him?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A previous poster stated that FDR held no prior elected office before winning the presidency. Actually, he was elected governor of New York in 1928, and New York was the largest state by population at that time.
Let's mind our historical facts...
-
Mary Cheney is fair game
[Read the article: What Mary Cheney should expect while she's expecting]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a previous poster pointed out, she was a paid operative on the Bush/Cheney campaign. She worked to elect an administration that has done everything it can to vilify gays and lesbians who didn't have the luck to be born rich and Republican.
It's not too much of a stretch to say there are probably gay and lesbian young people growing up - especially in conservative rural areas - who have been actively, tangibly harmed by this administration's hatemongering toward gay people. Yet many people, including some liberals, will get all up in arms over the "unfair" publicity surrounding Mary Cheney's pregnancy. Boohoo. Cry me a river.
This is just the latest example of the Republican attitude of "Do we we say, not as we do." If Mary Cheney receives even a small dose of the poisonous bile that she has been complicit in heaping on those less privileged than herself, well that's a good old-fashioned case of what-goes-around-comes-around. She's earned all of it and more. At least she has her Halliburton stock for consolation.